Lorensz Road, Bambalapitiya
Lorensz Road starts off at the end of the second Hindu Temple at Bambalapitiya from Galle Road, leading all the way down to the entrance of Saraswathi Hall and Hindu College on the left. The road ended at the Layards Road/Dawson Road intersection. Dawson Road is now renamed as Amarasekara Mawatha in honour of the doyen of Fine Arts Gate Mudaliyar ACGS Amarasekara, MBE, who used to live there. Dawson Road ran further down to meet Havelock Road at the point where the Colombo Colts Cricket Club is located in Colombo 5. The beautiful Ms Maureen Hingert, Miss Ceylon, who went on to become the second runner-up at the Miss Universe Contest 1955 lived, with her parents, down Lorensz Road. The final results at the beauty pageant was as follows:- Miss Universe 1955: HILLEVI ROMBIN Sweden 1st Runner Up: MARIBEL ARIOLA - El Salvador 2nd Runner Up: MAUREEN HINGERT - Ceylon 3rd Runner Up: MARGUT NUNKE - Germany 4th Runner Up: KEIKO TAKAHASHI - Japan Maureen was born in Ceylon, the daughter of Lionel Hingert and Lorna Mabel de Run. She won the Miss Ceylon contest in 1955 and also in 1955 she becomes second runner-up to Hillevi Rombin, Miss Sweden, in the Miss Universe contest. In 1956-57, under her real name she stars opposite Maxwell Reed as Anura, a beautiful South Seas native girl, in the British TV series Captain David Grief, shot on location in Mexico. Revealing photographs of her appear in the September 1957 edition of Playboy in scenes from the film Gun Fever. In 1958 she acts in the film Fort Bowie on location at the Kanab Movie Fort at Kanab, Utah in the USA. She has a daughter, Gina. Many other small houses with adjacent common walls lined the right side of the street all the way down to the end. Proctor NM Zaheed of Kotahena bought one of the houses opposite the Saraswathi Hall where one of his sons, Huzair Zaheed, lived with his family. Huzair was married to Zulaiha, the eldest daughter of Rameela Sameer, grand-daughter of Muhammad Sameer of 298 Galle Road fame. Rameela and family lived at No 43 Lily Avenue Wellawatte. Lorensz Road was located right opposite to Sagara Road. Mr and Mrs Fernando with their one and only daughter lved there before they moved to AustraliaMiss Rene and Miss Alvis lived down Skeleton Road and so did Mr. and Mrs Colin from Mack School of dancing (Britisher). Presently Ruzna and her husband Mohamed Saheedullah and children reside in these premises. From Adrew Sinnathamby in Hamburg: "Ronald Gray and his brothers Adrian, Carlyle, and the Pouliers too lived in the small row of houses on the right side of Lorensz Road. The left side was the Hindu Temple boundary wall going right down towards Saraswathie Hall and Elibank Road. There is a deep slope 75 meters down this road. On Saturdays we used to play cricket with Derek de Kretzer who lived at its the cross roads, and Ashok who lived on the sea side at Sagara Road. The slope was one parallel to the Dickmens road too. Most of the roads around Lorenz road were quite broad, therefore cricket was quite easy to play. It was a Burger dominated place. Old Memories. Sinna" Desmond Kelly (Des) also lived at No 38, Lorensz Road. Des is one of old Ceylon's much loved English Pop singers. One of his first tracks "Dreamworld" went on to become a great hit when he sang it with his band Des kelly & The Semitones, backed by the Gerry Crake Combo in 1958. Des also sang many other great hits like, "Cha Cha Baby", "My Island Home", "Babiachchige Bicycle Eka", "Nuwara Perahera", "Vadakaha Sudiya", & "Siripadey Samanalakandey". Conrad de Silva also lived down this street. From Des Kelly: “.....Moved out of Moratuwa and continued my studies at St.Peter's College BAMBALAPITIYA, starting there in 1948. Kept on with "showbiz" with their Music, Art, and Drama Society under Father Noel Cruz & Art Master "Papa De Niese" who were both "tough teachers". Moved to LORENZ ROAD in 1950, had already learn't to play the "Ukelele" (by ear), met Maureen Hingert, organized my first "Carol-Party" which included a very young Conrad de Silva, and continued to "entertain" people, singing to the accompaniment of my "Uke", both in English and Sinhala (mostly baila learnt directly from the great Wally Bastian), before people like the great Harold Seneviratne & his brothers Tissa & Chandra even started "playing their instruments (Sax, Drums and Bass) in public. People like Denis Roberts(a superb vocalist), Conrad de Silva, Charlie Schokman, Rogan Kelly (my youngest brother), who were, not much later, to become the Original "Semi-tones", Carl Jansz and Melroy de Silva, another fabulous guitarist & myself were already well-known "Bambalawatta Boys" (in the early 1950's), before other great "showbiz" names even surfaced. Many other small houses with adjacent common walls lined the right side of the street all the way down to the end. Proctor NM Zaheed of Kotahena bought one of the houses opposite the Saraswathi Hall where one of his sons, Huzair Zaheed, lived with his family. Huzair was married to Zulaiha, the eldest daughter of Rameela Sameer, grand-daughter of Muhammad Sameer of 298 Galle Road fame. Rameela and family lived at No 43 Lily Avenue Wellawatte. Lorensz Road is located right opposite to Sagara Road. Mr and Mrs Fernando with their one and only daughter lived there before they moved to Australia. Miss Rene and Miss Alvis lived down Skeleton Road and so did Mr. and Mrs Colin from Mack School of dancing (Britisher). category:Bambalapitiya